Pregnancy.

by trichley on June 23, 2012

Pregnancy wasn’t easy for me, I was always sick,tired and just plain unhappy. I found myself not gaining weight as well as I should have been from feeling so sick. I remember one time when Sam and I went up to Squamish for the night I barely made the hour long drive. When we did finally arrive I ended up going right to bed I was feeling so terrible – THAT sums up pregnancy for me.

We had our first ultrasound on July 25, which was a dating ultrasound to see how we measured. Our second “20 week” ultrasound was completed on September 20. Everything looked fine on both screens – and we were so excited to meet our little baby. We decided to keep the sex surprise which made it even more thrilling.

October 1 – it was a Saturday, we were in Vegas and it was my birthday. We got a call from the midwife; she wanted to let us know about a blood test we had taken. It was in regards for Downs Syndrome and our odds were 1-20. I thought those weren’t too bad, but she explained that that is a very high odds. She couldn’t give me more details besides that, but she said she would refer us to a Genetic Specialist to help us. Sam and I freaked out and went up to our hotel room and started to google what all this meant. I couldn’t believe she gave me this news without giving me anymore information. I couldn’t stop crying and worrying that my baby would have Downs Syndrome. Googling didn’t help me any, and that night was my birthday and I didn’t feel like celebrating. Sam and I went with my Dad and his wife to Elton John that night (I could hardly wait to see him prior to the news) and I just couldn’t fully enjoy myself. Every song brought tears to my eyes. So many thoughts were running through my mind! How could this happen to us? I was already 20 weeks pregnant and couldn’t think about aborting my baby! I just wanted a healthy baby!

When we got home from our trip we saw Genetics – who discussed what this all meant. They offered me an Amnio so we could know for sure, but thought it would be alright as nothing further showed up on my scans. This brought my odds to 1-40, a little better but not great. They wanted to do a more detailed scan when I was 27 weeks pregnant so we booked the appointment.

27 week pregnant couldn’t come fast enough. That day we went back to Genetics and they performed a very difference scan. There was a giant TV in front of us and the doctor was able to walk us through every step. He thought everything looked fine, no heart issues, no funny bone lengths and he thought we would have a healthy baby. Sam and I were very happy to hear this.

A couple of weeks later Sam and I went to visit friends in Salmon Arm, we decided to try curling. It was fun, but I ended up being in so much pain I thought I was going to have the baby! That is the day the baby dropped and I couldn’t walk like a normal person anymore. After that I was worried it would come too soon – thankfully baby didn’t.

Sam and I have always keep pretty busy, being pregnant or sick didn’t stop us from sledding. Even over the Christmas holidays we took to some sleds. But after that trip I realize I was doing too much as I was having several braxton hicks contractions. That was when I realized I needed to slow down and take care of myself and baby.